Pope Francis says Earth looks like 'an immense pile of filth'

Pope Francis reacts as he leads a Wednesday general audience in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican January 15, 2014. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi Pope Francis is not too happy with how humans have treated the Earth.

On Thursday, the Pope delivered his long-anticipated encyclical on climate change that called on citizens and governments to do their part to leave a lighter footprint.

Following the announcement, the Pope went on an aggressive tweet spree, calling out cultures that encourage consumerism and pollution.

In the encyclical (a papal letter to all bishops of the Roman Catholic Church), the Pope called for global citizens to pressure governments to cut down on waste.

"Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods," the Pope said, according to The New York Times. "It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day."

As The New York Times notes, the Pope hopes that the 184-page manifesto on climate change will help put pressure on governments and big businesses to take greater steps to curb emissions and pollution.

"I don't go to mass for economic policy or for things in politics," former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said earlier this week. "I've got another people helping me along the way with that."

Francis — who has made combatting inequality a staple of his papal tenure — also used Thursday's announcement to highlight climate change's impact on the poor. The Pope pointed out that climate change is exacerbating drought and depriving the poor of access to clean water.